Saturday, July 19, 2008

Ham Station to Operate from Arctic Circle

W1AW/KL7 to Operate from Arctic Circle: Just 300 miles south of the Alaskan Arctic Ocean -- where the Arctic Circle crosses the Dalton Highway (66 degrees, 33 minutes north) -- W1AW/KL7 will be on the air (grid square BP56) July 26-August 10 on all bands from 160-6 meters. This ARRL 2008 Alaska State Convention Special Event Station plans to run two HF stations operating CW, SSB and digital, one satellite station and one station devoted to 146.52 MHz. The Alaskan summer skies are ablaze with gray line-enhanced propagation effects, providing six to eight hour spurts of activity to most of the ham radio world. W1AW/KL7 plans to be active from 0600 UTC-1400 UTC to maximize gray line propagation. From Alaska, signals will take off in both directions at the same time: Europe to the East on one side, with Asia to the West on the other side. For an illustration of how Arctic gray line propagation
works, see page 21 in the August 2008 issue of QST. The 2008 Alaska ARRL Convention will run from August 1-4, 2008 in Anchorage. For more information, please see the W1AW/KL7 Web site http://www.akhamfest.com/arcticcirclespecial.php.

Courtesy of The ARRL Newsletter Vol. 27 No. 28 (Friday July 18, 2008)